II. List the content (academic) standards and benchmarks used in this lesson for the students. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What this means: for my lesson I should have three different sets of standards in mind as I teach. Presumably, for every lesson I teach I should have three different sets of standards bulwarking my otherwise feeble lessons.

I will confess something to you; other than this one lesson, I will not have a clue as to how these standards apply to my classroom on a daily basis. I am embarassed by this confession. I can feel you wondering whether or not my students are mastering Standard 3.5. Some of you are shaking your head, realizing that when it comes to professional teaching standard 1.4 I am a joke. I also must openly admit that I do not understand all of the SSGs (originally, I thought an SSG was a gastro-intestinal illness).

Teachers are supposed to hang a large copy of the Standards and Benchmarks in our class, which I have dutifully done--right above the garbage can. Any of my students can crumple paper and throw a bank-shot off the large laminated sheet. Yes, it is laminated. It is the only thing laminated in my classroom, as if to protect it from sudden hurricanes or madmen attacking with buckets of water. It hangs like the Declaration of Co-dependence.

Here is a 9th grade standard: "Applies knowledge of Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to draw inferences". Apparantly, this is supposed to be quite clear to each freshmen student who marches past it each day.

"Mr Donohoe?" says a cheerful student. "What are we going to do today?""Today class, we are exploring Standard 1.6!" I reply, and I step aside so they can see. "Mr. Donohoe? What are affixes?" "Easy, my cheerful student! Those are the end-parts of words! Not to be confused with 'prefixes' which we won't be doing as they are not part of the standards and benchmarks.""Mr. Donohoe? How do you draw inferences?""Well, you make a conclusion or reasonable guess based on the information you have.""You mean we're not drawing pictures?""Nope! Not part of the standards!""What's an Anglo-Saxon?""A large, bearded man who used to roam the earth pillaging villages so he could leave us words!"

And then the bell rings without my having the time to explain just how we are supposed to "apply knowledge".